Posts by Greenalien

Re: MIDI controlling DMX

It would be intertesting to know exactly which combination of hardware and software is being used for this; if some of the control system is running on a PC, then EVERYTHING else on the PC must be disabled, or it'll keep running off at random to do virus scans, check for software updates, etc...not conducive to a stable lighting control system!

Re: Game port

I doubt if MIDI was actually being used to drive the lighting - the MIDI was probably being used to drive a DMX controller, which then ran the lighting. MIDI is fast enough to switch lighting patches, but nothing like adequate for the fine detail of lighting control such as setting dimmer levels, or positioning a moving mirror - that needs the 250kbaud DMX signal - and forget 16 channels, DMX has 512...

DMX is another serial data control protocol that unified manufacturers and revolutionised an industry - in fact, DMX is sometimes referred to as 'the MIDI of the lighting industry' - but it is around 4 years younger!

Wrong pricing model

3G needs to be priced on the amount of data used - period. Pre-pay data shouldn't expire if it's not used, that's just robbery. And I agree with the first poster about 3 mobile, a company I shall never, ever use again.

Freedom to make an informed choice...

"The other thing to look at is why people take drugs. It's because their life is very unexciting/they have psychiatric problems/personal, family, financial problems/etc."

WRONG - most people take drugs, legal or illegal, because TAKING DRUGS IS FUN!!!

Now, I appreciate that not everyone has the same idea of what constitutes fun - some people would rather read a good book, or kick a football about, or go horse-riding (make sure you don't fall off!!) - and all activities carry some sort of risk - but there's still this undercurrent of puritanism in Western society that decrees that only medically-trained people should be able to decide if you can alter your consciousness, and that recreational use of pharmaceutical substances is somehow evil. Drugtaking is the last major taboo, and it's 'high' (ahem) time it was overturned.

Tape and Optical both have no future

'Tape owns the game for now' - does it? Our company ditched tape a couple of years ago and replaced the backup system with a pair of removable hard discs for daily backup, and another for archiving monthly data - we just buy a new one every few months when the previous archive is full - and at around £65 for 1TB, and rapid access if any data needs to be recovered, it works well and is cost-effective. Give it a couple of years and solid-state drives will take over, no question. Any storage 'solution' with moving parts is on the verge of obsolescence.

Free, legitimate downloads

I have a piece of equipment that automatically downloads copyrighted movies and TV shows completely legally.

It's called...a television set.

In order to use it, I have to pay an annual licence fee.

Why on earth can't this model be applied to internet downloading - if everyone had to pay - say - £100 a year for an internet licence and could then download anything, the fee being split according to the level of downloads, possibly with some weighting that reflected the production cost of the item, then we'd all have more choice and everyone who deserved it would get paid at least something.